The author predicted body mass of modern Japanese in Kanto region based on skeletal specimen (birth year: 1851 to 1928) stored at the dissecting room of Chiba University and the Jikei University by using a couple of equations of femoral head vertical diameters (FHD method) and the product of diaphysial sagittal and transverse diameters at the femoral subtrochanteric level (FSTpr method). In order to examine the validity of each estimation method in the Japanese skeletons, the author compared these raw estimated values with annually-reported body weight data in early 20’s adults by Baelz (1885), Meiji Life Insurance (1885, 1894 and 1895), Miwa (1893), the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (since 1900), and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (since 1947). The results indicated that all the estimated body mass was considerably larger than the corresponding annual data in excess of diurnal variation or seasonal fluctuation, and the errors were especially large by the FHD method in male. The body mass index (BMI) calculated from the estimated body mass and stature was higher in average, and the more individuals were categorized as overweight than the actual data of recent Japanese people. It is pointed out that the reasons why the previous estimating equations are not suitable for the Japanese skeleton are that many European-based groups used in the basic data for each method were different in the BMI and those BMI values were excessively larger than that of the past Japanese, in addition to the temporal and generational differences. For more reasonable estimation of body mass for the Japanese skeleton, it is necessary to prepare equations based on the Japanese somatometric data.

Human limb bone shafts grow thicker in response to activity levels experienced by individuals. This knowledge can be used to reconstruct lives of prehistoric people. Previous studies demonstrated that limb bone thickness of the Jomon people, prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fishers in Japan, vary with period and location. However, further tests are required for these observations because of the relatively small samples analyzed, insufficient examinations of inter-site differences and inter-observer errors in measurements, and the lack of control of possible effect of bone size on its thickness. In the present study, by analyzing relative shaft thickness and focusing on inter-site variability, we examine spatiotemporal variation in humeral shaft thickness using a sample of 1003 prehistoric individuals from various sites in the Japanese Archipelago (from Okinawa to Hokkaido), which includes 797 Jomon individuals. The results show that the humeral thickness increased from the Initial Jomon phase onward; the Jomon humeri are thicker in coastal populations than in inland plain populations; inter-site variation is present even among the coastal groups from the same chronological phase; and the patterns of inter-site variation are different between males and females. Of particular interest is the outstanding thickness seen in the males from the Hobi shellmound site located at the tip of the Atsumi Peninsula. We hypothesize that this was caused by not only fishing in the outer sea, but also active marine transportation by rowing boats.